Unhinged
by LiveLaughLove013
Summary: Being a victor isn't all it's made out to be. A look at canon and AU victors of the Games. For Shipping Week at Caesar's Palace.
1. Clove

**For Shipping Week at Caesar's Palace. Sunday: Cato/Clove**

She ends up in his old room in the training center. She's not sure where her mentors are, only that they're probably looking for her. She doesn't have long until she's found.

She looks around the room, remembering the handful of days they had spent in here before the Games. She closes her eyes for a moment, trying to focus, and his eyes, full of pain and something that looks a lot like understanding, fill her vision. Even when she was murdering him, he understood her better than she ever understood herself.

"If you somehow kill me," He had told her, the night before the Games, "Give them a good show, okay? You can carve one of those pictures you're so good at,"

He was right, She was a surprisingly good artist for someone who used blood as their paint and human flesh as their canvas.

She should've… Not gone into the Games. Refused to kill him. Sacrificed herself. The possibilities fill her mind, driving her to the brink of madness. His mangled, ruined body taunts her, reminding her that she should have done something, anything but kill him like that. Images of him with a picture of Thresh's death carved into his chest invade her mind. Her eyes fly open, unable to take the sight of him, of what she did to him, anymore. And yet, when she opens her eyes he's there too, dressed in his arena clothes with her bloody picture carved into his chest. She stumbles forward.

"Cato!" She whispers, hugging him tight. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry,"

He doesn't answer, just smiles sadly at her and jerks his head towards the door, where the knife she threw at him all those years ago the morning of the Games is still lodged. She walks towards the door and works the blade out of the wood, inspecting it. Perfect.

She glances at Cato, who smirks and nods at her. She grins, sits down on the bed, and presses the tip of the knife to her skin.

An avox finds her the next morning, her mangled body twisted in the bloody sheets. Blood paints her skin in a grim parody of the swirling tattoos the Capitol considers fashionable. Her dark hair is a mess, hacked short in some places and matted with blood in others. The victor's crown on her head and the twisted grin on her lips completes the picture.

For the first time in Hunger Games history, the Victor is dead before they've even reached their Victory Tour.


	2. Finnick

**Monday: Finnick/Annie**

His first appointment after _her_ Games is the Head Gamemaker, Vera Wallace. He spends two hours composing himself, washing away broken, lonely Finnick, the 19 year old boy from District 4, and replacing him with flirty, arrogant Finnick Odair, capitol heartthrob.

His mask crumbles the moment he sees her, wearing the same red dress she wore the night he and Johanna sold their bodies to her to get her to flood the arena so Annie could win.

Vera bats her eyelashes at him and grins seductively. "Hello, Finnick," She purrs. "It's a shame Miss Mason couldn't join us again,"

And just like that, he snaps. A thousand questions race through his mind, but in the end, all he gets out is a strangled, "why?"

She laughs. "Oh Finnick, you didn't think we would actually let her win, did you? Nobody wants a mad girl as a Victor, honey,"

She moves in and plants a kiss on his neck, fists her hands in his shirt to pull him closer. His mind is screaming, his vision is turning red as he is filled with hatred at this woman who took his body and his lover and quite possibly his sanity. He pushes her away and stumbles backwards, ignoring her surprised gasp.

She never planned on letting Annie live.

"Fuck you," He spits at her, and storms away. She tries to follow him, pull him back, but he shoves her away and hurries towards the elevators that will take him back to District 4's floor. She screams in outrage. He can hear her on the phone with President Snow as the elevator doors close.

He stumbles out of the elevator and collapses onto the bed the second he reaches her room. The image wall is still reflecting the ocean, the waves gently lapping at the sand the same way they did when they would explore the beaches together, back in District 4. Deep, primal sobs tear through his body. He screams and cries until his voice is hoarse and the sobs give way to a dull, aching loneliness.

They never planned on letting her live.

He curls up into himself, pretending Annie is tucked into his chest, and lets the sound of the waves lull him to sleep.


End file.
